Present scenario
At present there are numerous speculation regarding the future of Sourav Ganguly. Since he is out of the team a large number of people think whether it is over with him. However this question is very difficult to answer even by the selectors. The current scenario is that the selectors have not chosen him in the Rest of India side to take part in the Irani Trophy. This is seemingly a trial match before the series against Australia. The above mentioned question can be best answered by Ganguly himself who is the most popular inhabitant of Kolkata. Currently he must be pondering over this issue in his princely residence in Behala.
Past three years
Three years back Ganguly had a terrible misunderstanding with Greg Chappell. Since then his international career has been of intermittent appearances. There have been times when it was thought that it was all over with him and in these circumstances he has fought back and exhibited tremendous form. Initially Ganguly has lost his captaincy and further his place in the team. There is a prevalent notion that he avoids difficult situations. Any person in his place with less will power would have quit from the game. However Ganguly has displayed exactly opposite of what was expected from him. He has shown that he has tremendous will power and determination on the basis of which he staged a comeback and proved his critics wrong.
Challenging situation
Ganguly’s immediate challenge is whether he possesses the mental strength as well as the physical ability to fightback and recover his place in the team. It is but obvious that as in the past three years he has been convincing the selectors, battling off frustration and overcoming the threat of juniors all of these would take their toll. If a player is in his mid-20s like Rohit Sharma and Yuvraj Singh and has been removed due to poor form it is more easy to battle the crisis. In this age time is not a very big constraint and the player is ambitious to attain something. For a player like Ganguly who is in the mid-30s there is a feeling of futility and self-doubt. These two begin to occupy the mind as the end of the career appears close.
Reason for dropping
Ganguly must reflect on the issue that all the four middle order players including V.V.S. Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar have been retained in the team and only he has been kept outside. The selectors have taken such a decision irrespective of the fact that those who have been included have struggled in the previous matches. This anomaly is a tough one to answer precisely. One probable answer to this is the fielding of Ganguly. It is believed that his fielding is well below par when compared to the others. Another ideology is that the selection committee has realized that all these four players are aging and fresh blood needs to be given opportunities. It would not be skillful to replace all simultaneously and probably the committee has planned to do so in phases.
